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The Preservers
History One of the first species developed intelligence and, eventually, a star-spanning civilization. They left the cradle of their home world and set out to explore and tame the cosmos. An inquisitive race, they wanted to learn and understand everything. The Birth of Collapsar Eventually, their unquenchable thirst for knowledge led this species to a massive feat of stellar engineering: the creation of a vast quantum computer built and programmed, atom by atom, from the mass of a star. It would have such computational power that it would be capable of modeling the entirety of the cosmos, encompassing the whole of creation and laying bare its secrets to its creators. They would understand everything. But when the vast stellar engine became active, it created an unexpected chain reaction. The process caused the star to collapse in on itself, growing so materially and informationally dense that it formed a black hole, a sentient singularity driven by one thing: the need to encompass the whole of creation. In that moment, the cosmic menace known as Collapsar the Devourer was born, consuming the entire solar system where it was created. Correcting Their Mistake Collapsar’s creators were stunned and horrified. In their arrogance, their rush to advance and understand, they had unleashed the universe’s undoing. They sought to leash and trap what they had created, penning it inside folds in space-time, but projections showed all their solutions were only temporary. In time, Collapsar would consume everything. So its creators found new purpose, and a new existence. They became known as “the Preservers,” their original name lost to history, and were tasked with finding a way for life in the universe to thrive, prosper, and advance to the point where it might be capable of overcoming what they had unintentionally unleashed. For millions of years, the Preservers spanned the universe, cultivating and guiding new life. They created artificial intelligences to manage and monitor their projects and perform other duties. One, eventually known as the Curator, was charged with gathering and cataloging all knowledge, perhaps with an eye towards creating a kind of “time capsule” or record of the universe should all other efforts fail. Other A.I.s were set as guardians and overseers of burgeoning civilizations, recording and reporting to their masters anything of interest or potential. One such source of potential was the planet Earth. Preserving the Galaxy Earth at the time was inhabited by two intelligent species: saurian Serpent People and primates known as Humans. The Serpent People were of little interest: degenerate, cold-blooded, and corrupted by the worship of nameless entities from outside the universe even the Preservers considered dangerous. Humanity showed promise, however. So the Preservers intervened in the evolutionary contest between the species. They took and studied human specimens, vivisecting them and breaking them down to their essential components, mapping every molecule of their genetic makeup. Humanity had considerable potential, and the Preservers sought to exploit it. They took biological samples and “seeded” many of the worlds in the galaxy with life, extending its reach and influence, often modifying it to suit new environments or to follow new evolutionary paths. The galaxy became a living laboratory, designed to give rise to new species, perhaps with an eye towards ensuring life’s survival and cultivating civilizations capable of one day confronting 82 the threat looming in the void between the stars, the dark hunger seeking to consume everything. They created a “preserve” on the far side of Earth’s Moon, transplanting a human colony there. They harvested vast storage banks of human genetic information and cellular samples. They engineered variant strains of the human genome, enhancing certain traits to bring out their potential. When they were done, they departed, leaving behind their machines to monitor the progress of their experiments. They never returned. Cosmic Handbook, pages 81-82